A New Beginning
by reddruidfox
Summary: So I've been reading pokemon and looking at pokemon art and wanted to put my own spin on it. This is based off the show, only it's using my own characters, my own region, and even my own gyms and gym leaders. Enter Vael, our heroine who is starting his journey later than most...but he needs a starter. This is the beginning.


**Chapter 1: A New Beginning**

Vael woke up to the sound of pokemon arguing outside. It's a standard occurrence. After all, pokemon society is just like human society. He sat up in his bed and looked outside to watch the commotion as a pidgey argued with a fletchling over who had gotten the berry first. It was only in a language that humans can't comprehend. Vael's family had an Oran berry tree in their back yard, hence why the argument was a common one to him. He had decided long ago that pokemon were smarter than humans. Since they can understand humans, but humans can't understand them, they have a one-up on them there. And on top of that, if they hang out with their trainers enough, they start to be able to predict how their human will respond to things. Of course, the downside is that trained pokemon also start to take up the habits of their trainers so it's rather amusing how much alike they become compared to their trainers.

He smiled when the two half-flying types noticed him and stopped their arguing as he spoke to the two of them. "Now arguing about it fixes nothing you know. It's not like our tree is barren of berries you know." As soon as he finished, the fletchling pointed a wing at the pidgey and started chirping 'fletch…ling…ling fletch fletchling', he laughed and held up a hand to stop the fletchling. "Hold on now. Since you seem to be the most upset about this argument, why don't you grab a spare berry huh?"

The fletchling dropped its wing and looked so much like it was pouting, Vael was sure it might as well of been a human sulking. The pidgey, for its part, looked like it was pretty smug with the results. "Ah ah…now don't you be too happy with this outcome, I may have helped you win the argument, but I'll help out the fletchling now that you seem pretty happy with yourself." He reached into the fridge he kept by his bedside and opened it. It was filled with small pokemon sized cups of mashed berries that looked like slushies. He grabbed one and held it out his window for the fletchling, who promptly flew to his windowsill and took the offering.

Of course, now it was the Pidgey's turn to sulk, but he wasn't going to give in. "Maybe tomorrow…now go on about your business." He laughed and left the sulking pidgey and the munching fletchling. The cups were biodegradable and therefore wouldn't harm the environment if taken and left somewhere, so he wasn't worried about the status of the cup since he could just purchase more. Therefore, he decided to get changed into his days' clothes. He fixed his relatively short brown hair and cleaned the sleep out of his green eyes. Though he was 16, he still wasn't too old to start traveling as a trainer. Today, he was going to talk to professor Willow and pick a starter pokemon. Then, he was going to start traveling the region. The whole of the Kazan region was quite large and he had never seen beyond two major cities…and only one of them had a gym. So he was going to start getting some badges now.

While changing, Vael heard the fletchling call out to him and turned to look at it, breaking him from his thoughts. The now empty cup was placed on the inside of the sill and the fletchling bowed its head in thanks before taking off and going on about the day. He spoke quietly to the empty sill, smiling to himself. "You're welcome."

He closed the window he usually kept cracked since he was going out and opened the door to his room, heading downstairs to the smell of breakfast being cooked. Vael lived with both his parents, but he never saw his dad until the evenings. His dad always left before even the birds started to rise and was always home as dusk settled in. But at least they were a happy family. His dad worked in the orchards by Professor Willow's lab so that's why Vael knew so much about berries. The slushies in his fridge were all different flavors so the lucky bird that got it in the mornings sometimes got something other than oran berry for breakfast.

His mother approached the stairs as he started to come down, then promptly looked over his clothing thoroughly and fixed his collar as most mothers do to fix their child's appearance. "Are you ready for the big journey, Vael?"

He tolerated his mother's fussing because she always meant well, but responded cheerfully. "Definitely! I can't wait to get going on the road. But I guess the question I should be asking is are YOU ready for ME to leave?"

Vael chuckled as his mother glared at him. "I guess I have no choice. You know we'll miss you, but you can keep in touch you know. There are tons of pokemon centers throughout the region. So I'll expect to hear from you after you get in to every town…and there's the holo caster in case of an emergency. I put a spare in your backpack with your father's and my numbers in it. You be sure to keep that on you okay?"

"Yes yes…of course I will. Now can I go?" He started to grab the backpack he had packed the night before, but his mother stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Not before you get some breakfast in you!" She promptly directed him straight to the kitchen table and sat him down.

Vael sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. But only because you make such great breakfasts." He gave his mother a wink and she ruffled his hair lovingly.

"You know just what to say to butter me up. I've already said you could go on this journey so you don't need to convince me anymore." She laughed.

"I know…but I was just being honest." He started to eat the food that had previously been set on the table for him. The family's Delcatty hopped up onto the table and started to paw at the Miltank milk in his cup. Vael pulled the cup away and laughed at Delcatty as he munched on the ham, eggs, and toast. He drank most of it, but then poured the rest on his thoroughly cleaned up plate to give it to Delcatty, petting her as he stood up.

His mother stood up with him and sighed. "It's hard letting you go, but you be good out there okay. We raised you well, but there are going to be rough trainers, rivals, and battles aren't as pretty as the stories make it out to be. Take good care of your pokemon and they'll take care of you in return." She smiled and grabbed Vael's backpack and held it out for him.

He watched his mother as she grabbed the bag and then he slowly took it from her. Afterwards, she grabbed Delcatty as if afraid of having her arms unoccupied. He put the backpack around his shoulders and then leaned in to give his mother a loving embrace, including Delcatty in the hug too, but petting her again before he turned around. "I'll be fine…and I'll definitely keep in touch." He smiled and walked out the front door. She'd prolong it if he let her, so he didn't want to give her the chance.

Once outside, he headed straight for the path the led up the hill to Professor Willow's lab. He had grabbed a plain old jacket because one thing this region is known for is its heavy winds. No matter where in the region a person went, from the sunny port city of Sunnyside to the Desert Resort of Sandmurk, there was always wind. Needless to say, hats weren't popular items to wear in this region. The trend for head protection was hoods attached to jackets or shirts. He flipped up the hood so his head was protected from the early morning west wind behind him as he took the casual stroll.

He wasn't running late or anything and preferred to admire his surroundings, so he always left early for whatever he had to do. Already the orchards were visible. Fenced in behind five foot tall wire, it was still visible as the wire and fencing was open enough to see within, it prevented people from randomly climbing and jumping down. It was a protected habitat and against the rules to capture in, so there were many bug and bird type pokemon that made it their home. The professor did research there, which was the reason it was protected. However, on the exact opposite side of the road he was on, there was forest. It wasn't a thick forest as many homes and businesses were scattered amidst the woods, but the townspeople generally got along with all pokemon, living side by side with wild zigzagoons and other forest pokemon.

Inside the woods, there were no restrictions for capturing wild pokemon, so many new trainers from town would go straight into the woods and catch some pokemon for their trip, but Vael had seen all the pokemon this area had to offer, so he had already decided he wasn't going to capture any here. He knew how most of these wild species were so wanted to learn about others. This region was known to have most of the species in the other regions, but there were some that just weren't trendy here. The windy terrain of this region makes it hard for some species. He didn't know which ones specifically as there were so many kinds of pokemon out there, but he would be fine just getting some of the ones that weren't local.

Vael knew that from the lab he had three possible routes he could take to start his journey. To the south, he could travel along the coast and head towards Sunnyside. To the north was the Sandmurk. He had been to both, so he was probably going to head east, which would take him to the city of Noir, where he had never been before. Of the two towns he had been to, Sandmurk was the one with the gym. In fact, the gym was in the center of the desert, and around the gym, the resort was built. He would be happy to check out Sandmurk again, but first he would go to Noir.

But before any of that, he had to get a starter pokemon first, so he looked ahead, where one of the lab's large twin gates was swung open inviting visitors freely. Though the lab looked like a huge mansion with many rooms, only the professor and the trusted advisors and visiting scientists actually lived there. Many of the rooms were to conduct surveys of pokemon and Professor Willow was said to have a room dedicated to every pokemon type, including the new recently founded type of Fairy. Each was said to be designed in a way that would entice the pokemon to feel welcome, but Vael only had his imagination to think of what the fairy type room looked like and it made him smirk every time. Outside of the massive mansion that was the lab were several paths that led to different areas of the lab grounds. The orchard was behind and to the right of him as he had walked beside it to reach the lab. But the professor owned much more land. Everywhere the fencing touched was the property of the lab. Indeed, Vael's town had actually been built to support the professor's researchers. Every member of the city of Townsend had family members that were researchers in the past. Now the professor gets help from many of the other towns who send their own researchers to work here for different seasons.

His musings had finally finished as he approached to door to the lab and both rang and knocked. There was a speaker next to the door, which was used to communicate to any visitors and he was looking at it, awaiting the call that his ring had been noticed, but to no avail. He waited a little bit and was just about to ring again when the actual door opened to reveal a younger scientist in a lab coat. He had long black hair, and though he looked more a hippie than a scientist, he was very professional when he spokes. "Yes…this is Professor Willow's Lab."

Apparently, the scientist had been close enough that he hadn't bothered to answer with a call and just made his way to the door instead. Vael cleared his throat and spoke up. "Hello…my name is Vael from just in town and I had an appointment to pick up my started pokemon today."

The young man nodded and opened the door a bit wider, gesturing Vael to come inside. "You're a bit early young man…but yes we scientists were told you would be coming today."

Vael rubbed the back of his neck, still covered by the hood and looked down bashfully. "Yeah…I like to be punctual. Sorry about that." But he did step in, not wanting to reject the scientist's offer.

Once Vael entered, the door was gently closed behind him. "Well Professor Willow is out in the field right now so probably won't be back for a little bit since you're early, but you're welcome to hang out in the waiting area. I would stay and chat, but I was in the middle of something which is why it took me awhile to come down here."

"Oh don't worry about it sir! I was expecting the intercom call anyway, so actually having someone personally let me in is a bit of a surprise. I know where the waiting area is, so I'll just head over there." He started to make his way over toward said area.

"Oh I knew I forgot about something." The scientist placed his palm gently against his forehead. "That's what it was. Either way…I'll be on the second floor if you need anything. Please don't wander too far." And with that, the man headed up the stairs off to the right.

There were two sets of stairs, one to the left and one to the right, and the waiting area was just beyond both sets of stairs, through the middle. Once he got to the waiting area, Vael immediately started wandering around the room. It was open on both sides with no doors, but there were enough artifacts in here to keep a guest occupied for plenty of time while they waited. All types of pokeballs under glass, including old ones no longer in use. Images of fossils with notations by each gave off the appearance of a museum. The actual fossils were probably held elsewhere since this was just a guest waiting area with no supervision.

Vael was just reading about a particularly interesting legendary pokemon when he felt something brush his ankle. Caught off guard, he jumped a bit before quickly looking down. Looking up at him and sitting down on its haunches was an eevee. He gasped in joy and knelt down, holding out his hand slowly towards the eevee. They weren't common around this region. Most were on the other side of Noir, wandering the plains. They did have to learn about Pokemon habitats as part of geography in school. "Well hiya there, little one." He spoke quietly, trying to contain his excitement at seeing another pokemon that wasn't Delcatty or a bird like Pidgey or Fletchling.

The eevee stared at his hand for a moment before gently leaning in to press its head against his hand, looking for petting. Vael held his breath as he felt the soft, well-kept fur of this eevee. It didn't look too wild, since the fur was far too clean. He pets it, caressing his fingers through the white tuft of fur that hid the eevee's neck. After he pet it for a bit, the eevee randomly pounced him, knocking him off balance and on his rump, which made him laugh. "Well aren't you a strong Eevee for being so small."

The eevee responded by hopping onto his chest and licking his face. Such a light creature, it felt like it weighed nothing. His family's Delcatty weighed more, but he wouldn't ever say that to Delcatty since she got sensitive. As it is, he was laughing as he felt the eevee's wet sandpapery tongue tickle his face and he then started to tickle the eevee's sides in an attempt to return the ticklish feeling and the eevee started to laugh making cute little eevee noises before falling off of him and onto its back squirming a bit. Now that the eevee was belly-up he noticed the sex of this particular eevee was female so now he could finally stop thinking of her as an it.

"Now I've got you girl." He smiled and continued to tickle her as this was how he played with Delcatty and she finally managed to squirm enough out of his tickling to slide away and then jump up to get her balance running in circles around his feet so he couldn't catch her. Then she dashed off and out of the waiting area. He didn't follow as he didn't want to wander. Professor Willow was nice but he didn't like too many wanderers. He did have personal and private information about pokemon around here and had been yelled at a few times for wandering.

His laughing died down as he watched where the eevee had vanished outside of the waiting area and he smiled. "She was definitely already here for a while since she must know where she's going."

He sat down on one of the waiting benches and leaned back against the wall until he heard something bounce into the waiting area. It was just a bouncy ball like someone would play with their poochyena and then he heard "vee!" before he saw the eevee once again appear in his sights. She entered the room again and then nosed the ball to him and sat down on her haunches like she had been when he first saw her. He looked to the ball before picking it up. "Now that I think about it, are eevee more like cats or more like dogs?"

Her answer was to just tilt her head to the side close her eyes and say "eeeevee!"

"Yeah I don't know either…but playing is playing no matter what you do, right?" He laughed and tossed the ball into the area somewhere beyond the waiting room. She jumped up and hurriedly dashed away to fetch it, using both forepaws as she moved making her appear more like a bouncing rabbit as she moved. He once more started to laugh and when she returned, he repeated the process over again. Each time, she diligently fetched it and returned but oddly enough she never fought him. She would always drop it before he even had the time to reach for it, eagerly awaiting the next toss.

After a little while, her energy seemed to be getting spent so she didn't bother fetching the most recent toss he made and instead hopped up onto his lap since he had been sitting the whole time, only moving to lean down and grab the ball. He didn't mind as Delcatty always sat in laps and she promptly started to clean herself, as if clearing away the sweat she had built up while playing.

Vael, for his part, just pet her as he would any other pokemon, avoiding the area she was pleasantly cleaning. She really was quite soft, so he just started talking to her while she cleaned. "Today, I'm going to be starting my journey as a trainer. Professor Willow should be back soon and then I'll pick my pokemon and leave. It's a shame I didn't get to be with you more." Then his eyes brightened and he picked her up, placing his hands under each of her forelegs and looking into her eyes as he smiled. "Do you think he would let me forego the pokemon and take you instead?"

She looked at him in that cute tilted head fashion of hers and smiled. "Eevee!" She lost her excited smile as she saw him frowning.

"No…I guess he probably wouldn't. There's gotta be a reason he has you here and it's no business of mine." He set her back down in his lap and started idly stroking her as he looked up at the ceiling with a sigh.

She nuzzled into his strokes, in an attempt to comfort him no doubt. "Eevee."

He looked back down to her and smiled. "Yeah...I think I'm going to ask him anyway. There's just something about you that makes me want to have you as my pokemon." To which she responded cheerfully once more "Eevee!"

"Ask me what?" The voice came from the hallway of the backdoor on the other side of the guest room than the main entrance he had come in.

Vael jerked his head up and looked in the direction of the voice, but saw a cart with three pokeballs on it before he saw Professor Willow appear, pushing it forward. He picked up Eevee and set her on the bench beside him before standing up to look at the professor. "Oh! Hey there Professor Willow!"

Professor Willow was the picture of calm, and had the look of someone that analyzed everything from a scientific approach before doing anything, from the white of his hair, to the green of his outdoor lab coat. He smelled of flowers and freshly cut grass, so Vael assumed he had been visiting the grassy part of his estate for whatever reason. He looked from Vael to the Eevee on the bench and raised a brow, before looking back to Vael. "What is she doing out here?"

Vael quickly spoke up, thinking the professor might have thought he wandered again. "She came to me, I swear it! I didn't wander, I promise."

Professor was an older man, but only just over his middle ages, still with many years on him. And he cleared his throat before speaking in that deeper tone of his. "Yes of course. But that still doesn't answer my question as to why she's here. She should be in one of the rooms with-".

Just then, the young man that had first welcomed Vael came down, whistling like one would when calling to a pet, stopping in his tracks when he saw Professor Willow in the guest hall, speaking to Vael. "Oh good news Professor Willow, I finally got the serum to work from Eevee's samples, but in the process of completing it I seem to have left the door cracked and she got out…so I'm just searching for her now."

Vael picked up Eevee and cradled her in his arms. "I found her. She's been playing with me while I've been waiting for Professor Willow to get here."

Professor Willow looked at the younger scientist and shook his head, giving a little huff in laughter. "I should have guessed it was because of Trenton."

Vael still held on to Eevee, having grown quite fond of her in their short time together. "What serum are you referring to?"

Professor Willow waved Vael off. "Nothing you need to worry about. Completely painless to eevee. We take care of pokemon and work with them…not experiment on them. She's just quite unique."

"Well…about that. I'd like to forego choosing one of those pokemon and I was wondering if you'd let me take her instead."

The professor raised his eyebrows once more and cleared his throat. "Vael…she's unique and might be hard to handle. I wouldn't want to burden you with anything that might interfere with your adventuring as a trainer."

"I don't care. I am a responsible person, I can take care of her and any problems we might have…I'm sure of it."

"I don't know. I doubt very seriously you can, but you seem so determined." He looked over to Trenton. "Are you sure the serum is complete?"

Trenton nodded, combing his hands through his hair a bit nervously. "Oh most definitely, and we can replicate it if necessary, but Professor Willow…you can't be seriously considering handing over Eevee to this young man, can you? Considering how frequently Eevee-"

Professor Willow stopped him midsentence with a hand. "If we're truly good to go, I don't want to just keep Eevee here and put her with the others, especially considering the circumstances. If Vael seems determined and willing enough to take care and deal with any problems encountered, I'd rather Eevee be happy. She certainly seems happy."

Eevee was actually quite happy, now pleasantly napping peacefully in Vael's arms, resting her head against his chest. Vael blushed a bit at the professor's confidence in his ability and nodded. "Yes…I am more than willing to do it."

"Very well. Trenton go get her pokeball. It's still in the room you were working in right?"

"Yes sir. I'll go get it right now." With a little bow, Trenton quickly departed to dash up the stairs, leaving the two in the guest room.

Professor Willow leaned in a bit and cleared his throat. "I can't quite figure out how to explain Eevee's condition as I haven't come to a definitive conclusion on how to label it, but it is completely harmless to both of you. If you just keep her in her pokeball when she's not needed, you won't have any problems.

Vael didn't know how to respond to that, so he simply nodded and pet Eevee's sleeping form, looking over to Trenton when he returned with Eevee's pokeball. He took it from Trenton with a free hand and then held it over Eevee calling her into the Pokeball to free his other arm, in time to take the badge case, pokedex, and five other pokeballs from Professor Willow.

"I take it you know where you're going to go first?"

Vael nodded to the professor. "Yes. I've been to both Sandmurk and Sunnyside so I'll be going to Noir first."

"Hmm…Noir eh? That's the furthest away. You've got a bit of traveling ahead of you so you better get going. The gym in Noir is a Dark gym. I suggest taking the path through Eldenwood and taking a side stop by Alcoa. There are some fairy and bug type pokemon that you can capture and will help in your fight at the gym. Eevee is a normal type so isn't really strong or weak against any type which will help. She is pretty strong though despite her size, so that will help you out as well. You can use the dex to see what moves she knows as part of being a trainer is learning things on your own. So my assistance ends here." He gave Vael a wink and started to push the cart away, leaving Vael to find his own way out the door.


End file.
